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The demise of Joshua according to Josephus
Abstract
This article focuses on Josephus\' account of the end of Joshua in his Ant. 5.115-119. It offers a detailed comparison between that account and its biblical source (Jos 23-24) on the one hand, and two other postbiblical narrations of Joshua\'s demise, that is those of
Pseudo-Philo in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 23-24 and the “Samaritan Chronicle No. II,” on the other. As compared with Joshua 23-24, Josephus\' version appears highly abbreviated,
leaving aside, for example, the whole of Joshua 23 as well as 24:16- 28, 31-32, even while also introducing various new elements. Josephus shares his non-reproduction of Joshua 23 and 24:31-32 with Pseudo-Philo and the Chronicle, for example, but deviates from
these other witnesses in his downplaying of the role/activities of the dying Joshua.
HTS Theological Studies Vol. 63 (1) 2007: pp. 129-145